The United States and Japan will step up their defence cooperation to deal with the threat from nuclear-armed North Korea as tensions in East Asia remain high, officials from the two allies said on Thursday.

No plan to take back IR laws: Newman

There has been mixed reaction to a proposal by the Queensland attorney-general to take back some industrial relations (IR) powers the state handed to Canberra in 2010.

Premier Campbell Newman backed away from the proposal at a news conference on Monday afternoon, while Acting Prime Minister Wayne Swan described it as a shambles.

While the National Retail Association (NRA) has hailed the suggestion as the "greatest boost in a decade" for struggling small businesses, another peak industry body has expressed its concern.

The Australian Industry Group (Ai Group), which represents more than 60,000 businesses with more than a million employees, says taking the IR laws back is not the answer to addressing problems in the Fair Work Act.

Mr Newman said many small businesses regularly raised concerns about the current IR system, but shied away from suggestions the move was even being given serious consideration.

"Oh it's been talked about ... but are we planning to do it? Not at this stage," he told reporters.

"We get small business all the time telling us that the federal IR legislation doesn't work well for small coffee shops and restaurants ... they're saying it's unwieldy and I think you should go and talk to them about it."

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The premier said he had not spoken to federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott about the idea.

"There's no proposal before cabinet, there's been no discussion in cabinet about it," he said.

Pressed to guarantee that workers would not be worse off if the laws were taken back, the premier again stonewalled.

"There's no proposal. I'm not even going to go there,' he said, before bringing the news conference to a close.

Mr Swan said the whole affair, first reported on the front page of Monday's The Australian newspaper, was a huge embarrassment for Mr Newman, his attorney-general, Jarrod Bleijie, and the Queensland government.

"The right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing in this shambolic show," Mr Swan said.

"Less than 24 hours after he bluffed his way onto the front page of The Australian, the attorney-general's 'plan' to bring in an entirely new IR system in Queensland has been cut loose by his boss.

"This kind of shambolic approach is extremely damaging for investor confidence and business certainty, not to mention thousands of Queensland small business owners and their employees."

Chief executive of the Ai Group, Innes Willox, said reinstating the complex web of inconsistent federal and state laws would be an extremely retrograde step.

"However, two wrongs do not make a right," he said.

Australian Services Union branch secretary Julie Bignell said the proposal would be confusing to employers and workers alike.

"These comments sound like the LNP wants Queensland to go back to the bad old days of being a low-wage state," she said.